Faculty

Raul Molina-Mejia

Description

Raúl Molina-Mejía is director of the Model UN Program in Political Science and adjunct professor of history at LIU Brooklyn. He has had a varied career as a professor, researcher, advisor, human rights advocate and administrator. He teaches courses at LIU in Latin American History and World Civilizations and also has taught at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Molina-Mejía has a graduate degree from the School of Engineering, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), Guatemala, and conducted post-university studies in education for university professors at USAC, in Honduras, and in Germany. Molina-Mejía was dean of the School of Engineering at USAC, Guatemala (1976-1980), and in 1980 he became acting president of the university. In 1980 he was forced into exile due to the military dictatorship in Guatemala. He was a visiting professor at the University of Panama (1981-82) and the Catholic University of America (Washington D.C., 1983-1986) and a visiting scholar at Columbia University (2000). After the signature of the Guatemala Peace Accords in 1996, he returned as an academic advisor to USAC, where he was appointed coordinator of the National University of Guatemala’s Truth Commission (1998-1999).

Professor Molina-Mejía has had an outstanding career in human rights. He has been an advisor to human rights organizations in Central America including CODEHUCA, a federation of human rights NGOs in Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama; CONADEHGUA, a federation of human rights organizations in Guatemala (1985-95); and the Guatemala Human Rights Commission. In particular, he was a founding member of Representación Unitaria de la Oposición Guatemalteca, a political and diplomatic team that presented the case of Guatemala to all-important international forums on human rights, particularly the UN General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights (1982-1998).

Specialties

History of World Civilizations, International Studies, Latin American Studies, Human Rights, United Nations

Publications

Author, “Bringing justice to Guatemala: the need to confront genocide and other crimes against humanity,” published in “State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years”